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Before everybody gets thier panties in a wad I want to explain my situation.I can't find anyone who is willing to work long enough to learn to install a heat pump.It seems to me kid's these days are much happier flipping burgers or working at wal-mart nobody going for pro work anymore.The installation field is wide open for fresh young minds willing to put forth a little effort to learn the trade.I would love to see my son follow in my footsteps,and I'm not going to give you the same old "I HOPE HE DOES BETTER THAN ME" bullcrap,hell I hope he ends up just like his ol'man,works twelve hours a day and loves it,makes you look forward to what each day might offer.Most kid's think they can take an HVAC class in collage and come out with some kind of job prospect which they think thier ready for.You guy,s ,as well as myself know better,so what do we do for clean,smart,fresh young men willing to work toward a carrier and not just a part time or "get by" job?

Kids these days seem to think hard work is for suckers and losers. Computer jobs were the wave of the future. Well, reality is here. There are too many programmers and MBA's and not enough positions for them all! Meanwhile, I get paid quite well and am never out of work. You get a one-in-a-million shot at being pro sports or entertainment. Meanwhile, when you come out of school with your art, philosophy or MBA degree, get passed-over on the draft or any other pie-in-the-sky "career", I am still working!

sadly true but there is hope

Yeah I have to agree with you guys I'm 22 and have been doing hvac electrical and pluming ever since I was old enough hold a pair of snips linemans or a pipe wrench and like most I joined the computer age race for a pud job so I started going to school at nights and did what I know during the day worked in a small ductwork fab shop bending tin doing installs and service ended droping out of school moving back to my home town and opening up a electrical hvac and plumbing shop which I'll admit is a hell of a lot of work but I actually enjoy the work for the most part regardless of the hot attics tight crawlspaces ect ect like you all said there is no easy buck and who would of known that working you butt off for an honest wage would of ever been so enjoyable not what I had planned but all the same the better of the two options guess what I'm trying to say don't give up on the generation theres still a few old souls out there'

otto

people like us will be working because we are not scared to work.Anyone on this website right now I don't think is above working.What I'm concerned about is the kids growing up now with no work ethic nor the foresight to get into something this difficult.Our fathers did it,but I guess the time is near to pass the torch.Think about it,it's your furnace how safe do you feel after that last teen came to sevice it?

I gave HVAC a chance when I was offered a job. The company I work for asked me to join up with them when hearing from my neibor I was burned out in the construction trade, I was ready for more of a challenge.

I am 25 and will have been in the HVAC trade for 2 years this August. I was hired on as service and I made it clear I was only giving the trade a try. I love it!! I eat, sleep, and s**t HVAC. In my 2 years I have went from changing filters and being overwhelmed to having the reputation as the best tech in town. I now do sales, system design, technical training, am service manager and installation manager, help with marketing, and do technical assitance. I have even had competitors call me to come help trouble shoot. I am one of only 8 guys certified to do Geothermal, in our service area(52,750 square miles) 3 of the 8 work for us, others do it but not like me. Our lead installer is only 25 as well and is the best I have seen. We are the 2 youngest in town, most are over 40, but the older guys just seem to be working because they have to, like they are just passing the days until they reach 65.

Yes, maybe tooting my own horn a bit but I'm just showin' ya that us young guns are out there. You may need to seek guys out, ask around. You have to find someone with a strong drive to succeed, a drive to be the best, not good, the best. You have to find someone not affraid to commit to you and your company.....a young guy that is married is obviously willing to commit.

What helps the guys with the drive succeed is, give them some power, some say in how things are done. I have changed several company poicies in our company and negotiated raises for guys that I felt were being taken a bit of advantage of.

Another important aspect is the recognition for ajob well done. A pat on the back and an "atta boy" goes a long way for a young, new guy's ego. Keep the guys happy, happy techs are productive techs.

Just trust me, the young, eager ones are out there. You may have to steal them away from someone who has already seen thier potential and that won't be easy but you'll find one.

[Edited by i_got_ideas on 07-10-2004 at 11:05 PM]

There are 3 ways to do anything in life; Good, Fast, Slow: You can pick any 2.

Over twenty years ago when I was trying to break into this trade, I was one of the weird ones among my peers. I WANTED to be in this line of work. Not necessarily installation, I quickly learned after doing it one summer, but in the trade nonetheless. I say weird because I've found then and since that many in the trade are just there because they kind of fell into it and it gets them by. If you look like you REALLY want to be there they give YOU the strange look.

That doesn't bother me now. It's my trip and if I secretly smile when I get to a unit and find that difficult problem and fix it, that's my joy.

As to the matter at hand, I think a lot of the "kids nowadays" (geesh...knowwhatyamean about that makin' ya feel grizzly!), having been raised on a gluttony of media hype, entertainment, and video games, expect the world to be one huge playground and the hard core stuff like paying bills and keeping a job will just sorta work itself out. That's coupled with the attitude mentioned earlier that hard physical work is lame and if you break a sweat you're a loser. Wow. What they're missing. When I break a sweat I feel like I'm doing something, I feel alive. And in HVAC yuo get the best of both worlds. You use your muscle and your mind. You can walk into a house that has never experienced central cooling before, bust your butt, and walk out knowing something YOU DID made a huge difference in the livability and market value of that house. Same goes for service work. Get on a unit without a clue about what ails it and drive away later with the thing purring like a kitten and people grateful they're not frying anymore.

Sitting on my butt and trying to skate my way through a job...that's such a loser road. I had my bouts with that problem in my younger days, only wish I knew then what I know now. How many older farts we heard saying that when we were kids!!

Well, throw me into the pile of youngsters who enjoy this trade. I got involved in the sheetmetal part 4 years ago, and kind of got burnt out always doing the same thing (more or less, everything was square or round). But now doing installs and learning the service side has really got me looking forward to every day at work, and learning something every day.

It's amazing though, if I talk to some of my peer's (that aren't in the construction trade), they think I have a job that is around the same level as a burger flipper, yet they are stuck in an office typing numbers all day. But on the other side, when I get to go into a house that didn't have A/C (or good heat for that matter), and get to see the appreciation on the people faces when they have something that makes thier home much more fun to be in, thats plenty of reward for me.

Now if only I could get my company to appreciate me a bit more, well show it in more ways than confidence downers and loyalty busters, I'd really be happy :-)

Installers come cheap, at least ours do. We have a pretty decent service department. I think a lot op people see install as a constuction think where they can work the summer. And the funny thing is the boss treats the damn installers better than the techs. Go figure. We make decent wages, comparable to the rest of the trades. At least here we do. Would I like to make more, well yes but how much can you charge someone to change a filter. Not saying that's all we do, but that is a relatively common breakdown. Hello Stupid, change your damn filter. Hmm, I think I've wandered. Oh well